Is it too easy to petition a law to the voters?

ANNAPOLIS — Some lawmakers and Gov. Martin O’Malley are wondering: has the Internet made it too easy for citizens to petition a new law to the ballot?

Maryland voters decided in favor of three referred laws this week. Opponents to same-sex marriage, the Maryland Dream Act and the state’s congressional redistricting map, successfully petitioned them to the ballot by collecting more than 55,736 signatures for each law.

Delegate Jon Cardin, a Democrat who chairs the House Ways and Means subcommittee on election law, says he would be open to discussing changes to the petition process.

But Delegate Neil Parrott, the Washington County Republican who chaired MDPetitions.com, says the process is still far from easy. He noted it had been 20 years since Maryland residents have voted on a referred law.

6 comments

Don’t you think it odd that the Democrat Cardin would be the one wanting to make petitioning by citizens harder? Maryland has a captured political process that keeps incumbents in place and as we work to correct this fact we do not want to see the people’s ability to challenge legislation made harder.

As a fiscal progressive I plan to petition to referendum for issues that aren’t Republican so this is not a policy that challenges only a Republican minority and I see it as yet another attempt by incumbents to control policy. If you look at the votes on these referendum items this election almost all were close so there is no mandate to say these issues were not relevant to voters. I go further to say that some of these issues would not have passed had there been real journalism from media rather than special interest ads.

I would caution Jon Cardin in trying to make harder for the citizens of Maryland to challenge policy. That is what a healthy legislative process does and attempts to stifle this would be undemocratic.

I AGREE 100% ANOTHER THING WHY CAN’T WE, AS A CITIZEN HAVE A VOTE ON GETTING SOME OF THE PEOPLE OUT OF OFFICE WHO HAVE BEEN THERE FOR “YEARS”, THEY SHOULD HAVE 2 OR 3 TERMS IN OFFICE AND NO MORE. ANY ONE AGREE WITH ME